Warriors' best has career night in backfield

Eastern Wayne's defense answered the bell when it had to for the second straight week.

After surrendering 19 unanswered points, the Warriors stood tall on a late fourth down and survived for a 28-26 victory over Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference rival Charles B. Aycock at Little Big Horn on Friday evening.

Trailing 28-26 with less than six minutes to play in regulation, the Golden Falcons took over on their own 46-yard line. The drive stalled inside Warriors' territory when Dashon Brown broke up Tyler Farmer's pass attempt on third down, and Farmer's fourth-down throw to Shepherd Whitfield fell incomplete.

"There wasn't much good going on for Eastern Wayne in the second half of that game," said Eastern Wayne head coach Guy "Bubba" Williams. "We can't put ourselves in that situation to be what we want to be."

A block-in-the-back penalty wiped out Lamar Best's punt return for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter. The Warriors' were penalized 10 times for 90 yards.

"The penalties killed us," said Williams. "We had two or three scores left on the field. We've got to grow from that, too. A good thing to tell where we're at is tonight after this one our kids weren't very happy."

Whitfield's 14-yard touchdown run and Farmer's incomplete pass on a two-point conversion attempt sliced Eastern Wayne's lead to 28-26 early in the fourth quarter.

"We had chances in the fourth quarter, but we've got to stop making mistakes that put us in a situation where the fourth quarter becomes so critical," said Golden Falcons' head coach Randy Pinkowski. "If we don't have a bad snap on the extra point, we score that and it's a tie ballgame. We're probably playing overtime right now. We're not deep enough and talented enough to overcome mistakes."

Aycock recovered Best's fumble at midfield early in the third quarter and capitalized. Farmer converted a fourth-down-5 with a 21-yard run to keep the drive alive. He tossed a 24-yard touchdown pass to Elijah Murray on the Golden Falcons' next play. Farmer bobbled the snap on the extra point attempt, which left Aycock trailing 28-20.

Farmer finished with 127 yards passing on seven completions and rushed for another 117 yards on 13 carries. He threw a first-quarter, 30-yard touchdown strike to Craig Murdock.

Best rambled for a season- and career-high 298 yards and four touchdowns on runs of 56, 2, 1 and 20 yards. He has scored four touchdowns in three games this season.

The teams were tied 7-7 after one quarter before Best scored twice on short runs in the second period. The Warriors, who have won just three of 10 meetings against the Golden Falcons since 2001, boosted their advantage to 28-7 in the third on Best's final touchdown of the night.

"This game was everything for us in the conference," said Pinkowski, whose team has lost two league outings by a combined five points. "You can't go down two (games) in a six-team conference. This puts us scrambling for a third-place slot."